Ocean, nature, critters, and recreation

Nature

Feb 22, 2019

A photographer in Western Australia has captured video footage showing four dolphins in a sprint down the beach a mere stone’s throw from shore.

A 100-meter dolphin dash, if you will. A marine mammal version of a horse race, with the inside lane seemingly producing a clear winner.

The remarkable footage was captured Wednesday at Yanchep Lagoon by Carly Sinden, who said the dolphins raised their heads collectively, as if announcing themselves, before launching their speedy exhibition.

“They were so inquisitive and friendly, and even swam around the school kids who were in the lagoon having their school swimming lesson,” Sinden, who specializes in newborn baby photography, told FTW Outdoors.

Sinden also captured a second clip showing the dolphins racing in the opposite direction, this time with people in the water. One wader was a mere inches from one of the friendly mammals, and didn’t flinch as it dashed past him.

Said Sinden: “It’s something I will never forget and makes me grateful to call this beautiful place home.”

Yanchep Lagoon, near Perth, is popular among swimmers and snorkelers, who apparently never know what they might see.

On Tuesday, a day before a storm rolled into Southern California, three humpback whales were encountered under ideal conditions off Newport Beach.

It turned out to be a rare and magical experience for those on the Newport Coastal Adventure excursion, as one of the whales was a calf or young juvenile, less than a year old, learning to feed on schooling anchovies.

Stunning aerial footage, captured by Chelsea Mayer, shows the anchovies tightly bunched into a massive bait ball, and the young whale following the lead of the adults as they lunge through the ball, ingesting thousands of anchovies per gulp.

“Notice the smallest whale, still a baby, learning how to lunge feed from its mom; so cute!” reads the Facebook video description.

Mayer, a photographer for Newport Coastal Adventure, wrote on Instagram: “This is the first time I’ve seen multiple whales lunge feeding together in Newport Beach, and it’s no wonder – look at the size of that bait ball!”

One of the adult whales could be the mom, but it could also be that the young whale, recently weaned, is merely tagging along with two larger companions.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a Southern California-based whale researcher, told For The Win that humpback whale calves are born between December and March, and usually separate from their moms in late summer.

It’s likely that this trio is migrating from Central California to spend the winter off Mexico or Central America.

Mar 08, 2018

Video showing a scuba diver’s eerie swim through a sea of garbage off Bali this week vividly illustrates the alarming extent of plastic in our oceans.

Rich Horner used a pole-cam off Manta Point to show the extent to which non-biodegradable plastic and other garbage flows the currents around Bali and other Indonesian islands.

Manta Bay is a renowned diving and snorkeling destination. Giant mantas utilize the bay as a cleaning station – where tiny fish remove their parasites – and represent the primary allure for divers. But on this day it seemed best for humans and mantas to avoid the area or risk becoming ill.

“The ocean currents brought us in a lovely gift of a slick of jellyfish, plankton, leaves, branches, fronds, sticks, etc.... Oh, and some plastic,” Horner wrote on Facebook.

As bad as the pollution problem was during Horton’s dive, he said currents swept the area clean the following day. “As expected, the next day, what the currents bringeth, the currents taketh away!” Horton wrote.

“The divers who went to Manta Point today report they saw no plastic/trash at all. Great for the mantas coming in for a clean at the station, but, sadly the plastic is continuing on its journey, off into the Indian Ocean, to slowly break up into smaller and smaller pieces, into microplastics. But not going away.”

Jan 31, 2018

Scuba divers could barely contain their excitement during a rare face-to-face encounter with a gray whale Sunday off Monterey, Ca.

Ben Laboy and Nicole Guido-Estrada were part of an expedition with Bamboo Reef Scuba Diving Centers when the curious mammal approached, as the divers screamed with glee through their breathing gear.

“Had the experience of a lifetime this morning when a gray whale came up to say hi to me and Nicole on our boat dive at McAbee Pinnacle in Monterey Bay!” Laboy wrote on Facebook. “I will never forget looking into the eye of this majestic animal!”

Reached via email, Laboy said the encounter occurred at a depth of about 40 feet, not far from fabled Cannery Row in downtown Monterey.

“I had seen something behind Nicole, and was squinting at it for a solid 5-10 seconds trying to figure out if it was moving or not," Laboy said. "And then when it materialized, we both realized it was an animal, and that's about where the video starts."

Asked what they were screaming into their masks, Laboy said, “I think I was just saying, ‘Oh my god, that's a whale!” and Nicole probably exclaimed something a bit more colorful, haha.”

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a California-based whale researcher, said the gray whale’s behavior appeared to stem from curiosity. The divers did not seem to be in danger.

A Bamboo Reef spokesman said two others in a group of 10 also saw the whale.

The gray whale population is estimated to number about 29,000. The mammals, which can measure to about 50 feet and weigh up to 40 tons, are migrating from summer feeding grounds in Arctic waters to winter nursing lagoons in Baja California, Mexico.

The southbound migration is currently peaking off Central and Southern California.

Jul 19, 2017

One of the planet’s largest shark species is rarely encountered because it roams the shadowy depths between 600 and 3,000-plus feet. The sixgill shark, which can measure to about 18 feet, is therefore mysterious and alluring.

That’s why scientists aboard the EV Nautilus were excited to document the presence of two sixgill sharks last week while using an ROV to probe the depths around California’s Channel Islands.

Both encounters, although brief, were caught on video as the sharks entered the ROV’s lights. (Videos accompany this post.)

“That could be a sixgill shark,” one of the crew says in the first minute-long clip, posted to Twitter on July 11.

Moments later the robust shark is fully in view, prompting a scientist to marvel, “Wow… check this out,” as the shark swims slowly through artificial light.

The next day a different sixgill shark provided a longer and closer look, inspiring this remark, “He’s giving us a little show.”

During the second encounter, a crab briefly stole the spotlight as it crawled across the ocean floor, and into the ROV’s lights, toting another crab in its claws. (In the YouTube video at 1:07.)

“Is that a taxicrab?” a scientist wondered aloud, prompting another scientist to answer, “It’s an Uber crab.”

The researchers did not identify the crab species, but there was no mistaking the shark species.

Sixgill sharks are so-named because they possess six gill slits on each side of their heads, versus five for most other shark species.

The peculiar-looking sharks, which prey largely on seals, fish, squid, crabs and smaller sharks, are most closely related to fossil species dating back 200 million years to the Triassic period of the Mesozoic Era.

The EV Nautilus is conducting a yearlong exploration of the Eastern Pacific, from Canada to Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands.

Mola molas are the planet’s heaviest bony fish. They can reach sizes of about 14 feet vertically and 10 feet horizontally, and can weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. Only sharks and rays, which are cartilaginous rather than bony, are heavier.

Apr 12, 2017

A Florida family was greeted Sunday by a whale shark “longer than a school bus” and accompanied by hundreds of smaller fish.

“I heard my husband yelling over his regulator and looked up to see a what looked like a rolling cloud,” Brock said. “There were cobia and remoras everywhere - then I realized they were attached to something, and that something was a whale shark!”

The rare encounter with a 30- to 35-foot whale shark occurred off West Palm Beach as Brock was scuba diving with her husband, Keith Brock, her 13-year-old cousin, Addie, and their guide, Craig Buss.

Whale sharks are the planet’s largest fish and can reach lengths of about 40 feet. Fortunately for humans, they’re filter feeders and subside largely on plankton and small fishes.

Brock and her group had been diving with Pura Vida Divers at spot called The Trench, and had begun its ascent ascent from about 60 feet when the whale shark materialized in the distance.

“They are rare in Florida,” Brock said. “People dive their entire lives and never get to witness that.”

Making the experience more surreal were all the remoras and cobras attached to or swirling around the whale shark. (Remoras often attach to sharks and will eat parasites and other organisms from the skin of the host animals.)

“Our teeth were chattering,” Brock said. “The whale shark swam right at us, and then through us. Such a gentle giant. He barely had to flick his tail (which was much taller than me) to gracefully glide through the water.

“When he started to swim away we all just looked at each other in total disbelief. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had diving!”

Mar 10, 2016

Dolphins often steal the spotlight during the whale-watching season, but rarely do passengers get to witness what's known as a dolphin stampede.

The accompanying footage, captured Thursday by Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari, shows what happens when hundreds, sometimes thousands of common dolphins decide as a group to rush wildly across the ocean’s surface, as if in a panic.

The company stated in a news release:

“Whale watchers aboard a catamaran with Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari experienced a once in a lifetime thrill when hundreds of common dolphins, without warning or provocation, began porpoising at high speed out of the water.

“Often referred to as a dolphin stampede, this breathtaking behavior can happen at any time and without any apparent cause. Porpoising is the fastest mode of travel for dolphins because there is less resistance in air than water.”

The dolphins are not panicked, of course, and are not in serious danger of being hit by the boat. In fact, common dolphins are famous for racing toward boats, bow riding, and surfing the vessels' wakes. But stampeding behavior takes this type of seeming playfulness to a new level.

In 2012, also off Dana Point, a more dramatic stampede was recorded by Dana Wharf Whale Watch. The footage went viral, with the video (posted above) garnering nearly 2 million views.

Many expressed outrage that the fast-moving boat was placing the dolphins in danger, when in fact the boat was inspiring their playful behavior.

Feb 23, 2016

A gray whale believed to be albino has been documented in Scammon’s Lagoon in Baja California, Mexico, for the first time in at least three years.

The same whale was spotted in 2008 and 2009, as a juvenile. It might also have been spotted in 2013, according to at least one report.

This time, though, the white whale is traveling with her calf, who is not albino. (Both whales can be seen in the accompanying video, and a second video showing basically the same footage. The footage was captured last week.)

The whale’s identity was confirmed this week by Benito Bermudez, regional director of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas.

Bermudez told BCS Noticas that the whale is albino, not leucistic, a condition also caused by a lack of pigment. However, nobody has provided photos showing pink eyes, which would prove that the cetacean is albino.

Bermudez said the whale was most likely born in Scammon’s Lagoon, known locally as Laguna Ojo de Liebre. He said there are only “three or four records” of albino gray whales worldwide.

About 21,000 gray whales feed during the summer in Arctic waters, and migrate to Baja California each winter to give birth and nurse their young.

The northbound migration is just beginning, and over the next several weeks more than 1,000 gray whale mothers and calves – the last to depart – will begin their 6,500-mile journey to and beyond Alaska.

Of course one whale will stand out among the others: the now-famous white whale from Scammon's Lagoon.